La Borinquena, in Oakland, Pepito's, in Richmond, and Belmar and La Palma, in San Francisco, each self-identifies as a "Mexicatessen." (The hyphen hops around, and sometimes is absent altogether.) It's a meme that I've seen replicated only in the Bay Area, without affectation.

Now a brick-and-mortar restaurant, El Tapatio — the name is a Mexican colloquialism for someone from Guadalajara — reportedly began as a food truck. The takeout annex seen here still claims roadside cred, though this "truck" is going nowhere fast: The tires and headlights are only appliques, and the windshield wipers are painted on.

That's no hipster hat on the "driver"; the curved lines of his "coupe" signal pre-war style. Even current management aren't clear about when Andy's was founded, but sometime in the 1930s seems right. My hefty maple donut (85 cents) made no pretense at mass-produced symmetry; it, too, was old-fashioned, in the best way.